


An Old Familiar Tune

by clutzycricket



Series: Clock Don't Stop [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Feels, Healing, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Remarriage, Scars, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 16:05:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6121942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clutzycricket/pseuds/clutzycricket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhaella Targaryen had settled into her widowhood, and was starting to be content, when Bonifer Hasty stepped back into her life.</p><p>There was something terrifying about second chances, the way they made people hope and think about what could have been and what they had instead. </p><p>(Rhaella isn't alone, though. Her family won't let her forget that.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Old Familiar Tune

Rhaella Targaryen had… not perhaps given up entirely on happiness during her marriage. 

 

It had not been a marriage of her choice, and as Aerys’ secret cruelties bled out into public view and the whispers and pitying glimpses grew, Rhaella had learned to tuck what scraps of happiness she had left deep in her soul, in a box of ironwood. Her daughter’s laugh, her elder grandson presenting her with a clumsy wreath of flowers, Viserys teaching her granddaughter how to climb trees…

 

Well, considering the broken wrist that had resulted from that, perhaps other incidents.

 

It had been tested- the miscarriages and stillbirths, Rhaegar abducting the Stark girl- and she didn’t care what they claimed, later, the girl was still so young to have a child, and their marriage hadn’t lasted, had it? And Aerys, always Aerys, smoke in the shadows until he was finally dead.

 

(She pretended she didn’t hear Oberyn Martell ask if they should put a stake through his heart, just to be sure, because she rather feared she would answer yes. He was cremated, anyway.)

 

Life, she reflected ruefully, had a way of surprising her. First Lysa Tully, who had snookered Rhaegar- and snookering it was, despite the sweet and dreamy girl providing him with a stepchild and four more children and an occasional flash of spine, especially where they were concerned. Dany had taken up investigative journalism, and she could barely follow the trail of Aegon’s string of postcards with brief, cheery messages. 

 

Still, she thought ruefully, for a sixty year old witch who specialized in entertainment magics, she was doing quite well for herself. Elia had helped her find a like minded soul in Rhea Florent, four years after Aerys died, and they had started a small, tasteful party planning company.

 

Then, of course, Bonifer Hasty came back into her life, and fifteen minutes after he walked out of their office, Rhea was laughing herself sick and pressing a much needed glass of wine in her hand.

 

“Rhaella, you look like someone smacked you with a fish,” the other woman said frankly. “What was that all about?”

 

“Old ghosts,” Rhaella said, shaking her head. “Do you know, before… I was about to marry him once? He asked me to run away and elope with him.” It had seemed terribly romantic to Rhaella, who had been seventeen and desperately in love, and terrified of the blade over her head.

 

“Instead you were saddled with that rat bastard Aerys,” Rhea said, understanding. “Did your family find out?”

 

“Oh, yes,” Rhaella said, smiling thinly. “Why do you think I’ve never properly disapproved of any of my children’s romantic choices?” She paused. “Disregarding Lyanna.”

 

~

 

Time had changed the both of them, she admitted, for the better and the worse- while she didn’t age as quickly as a non-magical, time and stress had left lines and scars on her body, and repeated pregnancies their own marks.

 

Bonifer was quieter, more solemn, as if missing that daredevil streak that had made him hope, once, that he could land the impossible dream, with scars and frost in his hair.

 

Still, they circled each other, relearning old habits and discovering new ones, slowly realizing that no one would stop them this time, that they had no limits but their own minds.

 

“Send me an invitation,” Rhea said, when Bonifer came to the office to take her to dinner. 

 

Rhaella scowled, but when the simple amethyst ring is slipped on her finger, Rhea is the first non-family name on the list.

 

~

 

“Relax, my dear, I’m sure they’ll be happy for you,” Bonifer said, proving that he was missing the point. “And Rhea said she knows your preferences by heart, so don’t worry about the wedding.”

 

Or perhaps he does, a little at least. “They can all be a bit much.” It isn’t that she has been keeping this from her family- he’d met Viserys and Senya together, her puckish granddaughter keeping her overprotective son in line. (She had even apologized for the mess of bruises left on his shin.) Dany had met him when she stayed with Rhaella one Sunday, accompanying them to church. 

 

But it was very, very difficult to get her family in one spot, and some of the invitations were going to be difficult to send.

 

Her phone went off, and she laughed at Jon’s name showing up. “Time for the first reaction.”

 

“Hi, Gran,” he said, and she could picture his expression of bafflement just from that. “I got the invitation…”

 

“Oh?” Rhaella said, trying to keep the nerves from showing. Jon wasn’t a cruel boy, she told herself. He wasn’t the sweetest of her grandchildren- that would be Minisa, the youngest, but he wasn’t going to hurt her on purpose.

 

Rhaenys would kill him if he did, if Viserys didn’t turn him into a goldfish first.

 

“Yeah, congratulations, first,  it’s great,” he said, stumbling over the words. “But… is dad coming?”

 

“...I sent him an invitation, yes,” Rhaella admitted. “Well, Lysa, because I trust her to remember the dates better.”

 

“Yeah, Step Lysa is scary like that,” he said, “but you invited Rhae and Egg?”

 

“...Yes, if we can find your brother,” Rhaella paused. “Oh dear.”

 

“...We can put tranquilizers in their stuff?” Jon suggested, not entirely innocently. Really, that boy was too… like her, really. “And I’ll track Aegon down for you, Gran. Last I heard he was in Monaco, and Desmera or Rhae can find him if I can’t.”

 

Rhaella closed her eyes. “This is going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

 

“Rhaenys will behave for your sake,” Jon said, thoughtfully. “And if you make sure Senya is next to Aegon we  _ should _ be okay. Or Viserys could just turn Dad into a swan or something for the whole day.”

 

Rhaella let out a weak laugh at the hope in his voice.

 

~

 

Lysa had agreed to accompany her to the dress boutique, the plump and cheerful redhead wearing a series of messily knit accessories and a designer coat, bright and bold against the whitewashed storefront. Rhaenys was with her, dark hair swept up and leaning forward on her chair.

 

Rhaella gave a tiny smile when they spotted her, Lysa waving.

 

“Grandmere!” Rhaenys beamed, all her father’s eyes and a wickedly red grin that reminded people uncomfortably of Oberyn Martell. Or perhaps Dracula.“Mr. Hasty is actually making an honest woman out of you?” 

 

“Oh, and who is it that Dani saw you with last week?” Lysa teased. Rhaenys scowled at that.

 

“I am keeping my relationships away from this den of lunatics I call a family until circumstances dictate otherwise,” she declared. “Now, you said no white gown, and yeah, Grandmere, you would look kind of like the Snow Queen, so let’s not.”

 

“It would also be silly for me to go down the aisle in white as a widow with three children,” Rhaella said dryly. “No one would believe me a virgin.”

 

Lysa snorted. “I went down the aisle three months pregnant with Senya and with Dani as a flower girl,” she pointed out. “Do whatever you want.”

 

“She  _ would _ rock dark blue and violet colors,” Rhaenys pointed out, as Lysa opened the door, following behind, leaving Rhaella to close the shop door. 

 

The store was open and airy, the tasteful sort of place that she suspected had been chosen by Rhea rather than her shopping companions, an attendant hurrying up.

 

“May I help you?” she said, looking over them curiously. What a picture they must make, Rhaella thought to herself. 

 

“I’m looking for a dress suitable for a formal engagement,” she said, after a wheel bumps into her leg. 

 

The shop assistant started asking questions, and soon they had a collection of five dresses to try. The woman- wiry, slightly ferrety, with the unfortunate chin that seems universal for Freys, and she did recognize the tower logo on the shop after dress two was selected- turns to study eccentric, plump Lysa in her braid and sugar-burned arms, and Rhaenys, some paint in her hair and looking at them with Elia’s wickedly bemused expression that meant someone would cry if they put a foot wrong.

 

“Will either of you be requiring anything?” she asked, with a hint of dread. 

 

“No, no, I think I can wait,” Lysa said, twitching her nose at the selections. “Try the blue one with the beading first, Mum, I think I can decide on the Farwind dress if we know how the color works on you.”

 

“Tyene got out the sewing kit,” Rhaenys grinned up at them. “Sorry.”

 

“Let me know if you need anything else,” the assistant- Arwen, that was her name- said, and they turned to the dresses.

 

And, of course, the mirrors.

 

The scars had faded, in the years since Aerys’ death, with time and magic and Vitamin E. But there are still cruel silver lines down her breasts, her sides, always revealed whenever her carefully selected clothing comes down.

 

(There is a reason she had Lysa, with her own silver scars down her wrists and refusal to speak with her father, and Rhaenys, who had woken screaming for so many nights after the hospital and refused handles on her chair. There was a charcoal dress that flattered her figure so well she almost missed the way it dipped, Lysa merely frowning and saying the color was far too dull for a wedding when Rhaella finally noticed, mouth slack with dismay.)

 

They settled on something in a deep lavender that Rhaenys insisted will go wonderfully with the grey pearls that had belonged to her grandmother, and Lysa nodded and said that her niece could handle Rhaella’s make-up, easily.

 

One item down, she thought, her stomach swooping, and so many more to go.

 

~

 

It had been strange, comparing this wedding to her last.

 

She had tried not to, of course, because the last had been a haze of resentment, fear, and the pressure of magic on her tongue, every choice made for her, and the results… 

 

She had her children. Most days, she had thought them worth it.

 

Bonifer was different, of course. He wasn’t parading around women who were taller, younger, thinner, or somehow better than Rhaella, he wasn’t cruel, he wasn’t mad.

 

But she was still shaking, somehow.

 

Rhea, bless her, had taken to getting her to approve from two or three choices for everything, helping Rhaella feel in control.

 

Possibly, however, they should have spoken with Cousin Stefon’s children, she thought, looking out her bedroom window.

 

“Tears of joy?” Bonifer suggested, looking at the rain when she lifted the curtains. “Rhaella, love, it is far too cold in this room, get back under the blankets.”

 

Thunder boomed, and Rhaella gave him a wry look. “We’re cursed,” she counteroffered.

 

Her phone went off, and Dany’s name came up on the screen.

 

“Hello, dear,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Bonifer moved to cover her with some of the blankets.

 

“Hey,” Dany said, slightly bleary. “Doreah, is that coffee? You brought me coffee? I love you, you are amazing.” She paused. “I was going to say that you shouldn’t worry about the weather. I’ve got it under control.”

 

Rhaella tried not to sound doubtful. She loved her youngest, but sometimes her ambitions overreached her grasp. Also, Stannis was currently away on business, she refused to invite Robert, and Renly had apologized for needing to be in a different country than Robert and his wife after Robert had found out about Loras Tyrell. “How is that?”

 

“I told Rhaegar to fix it,” she said, and Rhaella blinked.

 

“You told Rhaegar…” she started, earning a startled snort from Bonifer.

 

“Try not to break your mother,” he called.

 

Dany snickered. “I thought the groom wasn’t supposed to see the bride before the wedding?”

 

“Hush, darling, I only keep up with  _ your _ exploits through Facebook,” Rhaella admonished.

 

“And we only know about Rhae’s exploits because Dani the Red accidentally snooped,” Dany finished, using her nickname for Lysa’s Danelle.

 

“She agreed to bring them to the wedding, whoever they are,” Rhaella said, lightly. “I suppose it is better than Viserys’ girlfriend and her video habit.”

 

“Gods, I didn’t need to know that was on the internet,” Dany made a gagging noise. “But I did scare Rhaegar into doing some sorcerer thing so he’ll behave.”

 

And the rain did stop, though the skies were grey and murky.

 

The church was the same one they had been going to since about four months after they met again, a small place where they both felt comfortable, with a small enclosed garden.

 

“Grandma!” Minisa said, bouncing up. She had Rhaegar’s height, though a predisposition for Rhaella and Lysa’s build, with a cloud of reddish blond curls. There had been jokes about cherubs for years about the baby of the Targaryen family. “Da fixed it! Mum and Dani had a bet if he could or not. And Robin was saying it really loud, and so was Alyx. Senya and Dany with a y were laughing, though...”

 

Rhaella started laughing, realizing how her daughter had pricked at her older brother’s pride. 

 

“Are your other brothers and sister here?” she asked, hopefully.

 

Minisa actually bounced. "Jon is here, he came all by himself and Viserys was teasing him, and Senya was distracted because Rhaenys actually brought a date. And Aegon is..."

 

"Ah, sorry, I'm not actually late, am I?" he said, rumpling his hair. “Sorry, parking was a pain. Cute dress, Minnie Mouse.”

 

Minisa twirled in her purple dress, which sparkled slightly. Rhaella had bowed to the inevitable- or perhaps a bit of annoyance at Rhaegar’s dumbstuck bafflement at her remarriage- and allowed Dany and her younger granddaughters to select the bridesmaid gowns. 

 

Or argue over.

 

"Hello, Desmera," she smiled at the sea witch, who was watching the city with dismay.

 

"Hello, Mrs. Rhaella," she said, dimpling a polite smile. "I'd apologize for him, but he is sober, fully dressed, and you've known him longer than I have. This is the best we can expect."

 

Aegon made an over-exaggerated pout that made Minisa giggle.  "You are a cruel woman."

 

"He says this like it is a new discovery," Desmera said wryly. "Sorcery for the..." she swirled a finger to encompass the clouds.

"Yes, Dany apparently egged her brother straight into a corner," Rhaella said, raising an eyebrow. 

 

There was a low rumble of thunder.

 

"Wait, Rhae and Dad are both in there?" Aegon said, eyes wide. " _That's_ not good."

 

"Mum will deal," Minisa said, and at the tone the adults present looked for horns. It must be genetic somehow, Rhaella thought, though she wasn't sure how. "She said you deserve your happily ever after, so you are going to get it." 

 

“It’s not an ending, though,” Rhaella mused. “More a… second chance. One I fully intend to continue seizing with both hands.”

 

“Oh, the jokes I would make without the little ears present,” Aegon said, hands jammed in his pockets. Desmera shot him a flat look, a smile fighting its way up into her face.

 

Viserys poked his head out the door. “I was sent to remind you that apparently weddings are supposed to have a start time, and also to remind Aegon that he can’t punch someone in a church again.”

 

“ _Again_?” Rhaella yelped.

 

“He punched first,” Aegon said, defensively. “Grams, you didn’t…I was trying to resolve it peacefully, promise!”

 

“Lying,” Minisa said softly, and Rhaella had to sigh and straightened her skirt, because she was taking the good from her past, and she was not going to be late for her second chance.

 

(And, a part of her said, stake Aerys’ ghost in the heart and burn the bones, once and for all. Rhaella Hasty sounded much better to her ears than Rhaella Targaryen.)

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> For those who are curious, the kids are:  
> Rhaegar and Elia: Rhaenys (26) and Aegon (24)
> 
> Rhaegar and Lyanna: Jon (23)
> 
> Lysa and Petyr: Danelle {Whent} (24)
> 
> Lysa and Rhaegar: Visenya (18), Robin/Daeron (14), Alyx (11), Minisa (9)
> 
> The Goblin Army is shamelessly stolen from Band-aids and Bullet holes, only I didn't really flesh out- or name- them. So hey!
> 
> Also, Skynet is Q. There is a possibly a story there. There is definitely a story behind Aegon/Desmera, and punching a guy in a church.


End file.
